Spotify announces new features in family plan upgrade

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of its Family plan, Spotify has announced it is upgrading it with more services at the same $17.99 price.

It’s gone live in Ireland, with Australia set to follow during spring.

Family members living under one roof more choices to customize music streaming and podcasts.

The new features include:

Parental Controls: a long-requested feature on community boards, parents will now be able to control the Explicit Content Filter setting of all other accounts on their plan.

Family Mix: families get exclusive access to a personalized playlist packed with songs the whole family can share whether it’s during the morning commute, cooking dinner or hanging out on the weekend.

Family Hub: billing users can now manage their Family’s settings in one place, including adding or removing family members, keeping their home address up to date, and adjusting their parental controls.

Six Accounts: Spotify Premium Family still provides six individual Spotify Premium accounts for family members living under one roof, meaning they keep their saved music and playlists.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve the Spotify Premium experience, and the upgraded Premium Family plan brings new features to how families enjoy listening to music and podcasts they love.” said Alex Norström, chief premium business officer at Spotify.

“At a time where parents are trying to reduce screen time for both themselves and their family, we’re creating more ways for families to bond over music together, while still celebrating individual tastes and giving parents more control if they want it.”

Earlier today TMN revealed that Spotify is testing a price rise for its family plan in the Scandinavian markets.

Since its launch in 2014, Spotify Premium Family has grown to “millions” of subscribers in more than 60 countries, with 50 million tracks and 450,000 podcast titles.

To celebrate turning 5, Spotify Premium Family analysed how families are listening to music:

The most listened to artists by Spotify Premium Family subscribers globally include Ariana Grande, Drake, Queen, Billie Eilish and Khalid.

Most streamed songs globally are ‘Shallow’ by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, ‘Sunflower – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse by Post Malone and Swae Lee; and ‘Happier’ by Bastille & Marshmello.

Australia is one of seven select countries where Spotify has its Disney Hub.

It gives families access to soundtracks from Disney, Pixar and Marvel movies, Star Wars instrumentals, classics, sing-alongs and more.

More information available on Spotify’s official blog.